Happy New Year!

From Fie and all of us at Tara!

Day 6 - I cannot help myself.

I gotta stop posting twice in a day - this is how you can tell I have no life. I hope I'm not this bad when I have kids.

So I went and posted my litter on a couple resources - stockdogs4sale (it's a mailing list for people interested) and WorkingAussieSource. I also printed up a poster for putting up at the local feed store. I was *really* scared no one would want my puppies, but now I am pretty comfortable that they'll all have awesome homes. For one, they are ADORABLE, for two, they have a nice pedigree, and for three, dude, they're puppies.

But now I am at a new crossroads. I was so worried about puppy homes that I didn't really think about it . . . but how do you decide who gets what and who you pass on? So far all the reserved puppies are going to "dog people." I said I wanted actual ranch homes, and honestly, local is best, I think. I really want to see what these dogs turn into. I don't intend to be a major breeder, but I want to do something right, you know? Not just a one-off.

Advertising where I did online is probably going to net me more dog people homes. They'll get trial exposure, lots of mileage on stock, and the homes are well suited to the temperament I think I'm producing. But like, a couple of these pups I think may end up fulfilling another goal of mine - breed champions out of working dogs. I wonder how I can motivate homes to try doing that? I would love to be a breeder judge one day . . . and I tell you what, Moto, my big red merle male? He has bone, coat, and size . . . we'll see about his structure, but so far all my puppies have nice puppy-heads and they are strong as heck. Nice straight tail sets . . .

The contract I have drawn up is super micro-managy. I originally wanted to find "foster homes" where people would keep the dog intact and I could come back and breed to it without owning a pile of dogs. And while I am not someone who that arrangement would be a problem with (I'm easy going about nearly everything), I'm also of the belief that you should pretty much be able to do what you want with your dog. I need to work on it. Maybe I'll adjust prices or offer cash refunds if people achieve something I'd like to see with the dog.

On the actual puppy front, they are indeed getting big now! I'm watching their tails to make sure they're healing okay . . . and my favorite time of the day is the stimulation exercises. It's fun to see who freaks on what day and how much. Consistenly Firma and Optimus Prime take it all in stride. Firma's likely already got a home, and that leaves me to favor two pups right now, Optimus Prime and Dactyl. Again, this is really Yishai's puppy, so he can do what he wants, but Optimus just seems to call to me with her mellow red bi ness. She's always around, doing something cute . . .

But in all seriousness, I love them all. I still cannot believe the quality of this litter. Everyone looks so consistent in type and color and plain ol' prettiness. I mean, I did pick a pretty tight line breeding because I was hoping for that, but I am still utterly stoked on what a pretty litter I've got. I can see how it will be hard to part with them, but as I spend New Year's weekend totally alone (no roommates, no friends in town for the most part), I spend it with EIGHT dogs in the house (Fury + litter+ plus my roommate's dog, Rex) and that is just gross. Nope, I'm good; don't need a puppy collection.

Off to shop for toys and maybe some puppy agility equipment (tunnels and baby teeters, anyone)?

Day 6 - Fury's ready for a break

Last night was pretty rough. Around 11, as I was shutting everything down for a 5 am wake up call to do some online classes, Fury started getting super restless. Whine whine whine. The puppies were pretty vocal too with their grunting. I am obsessed with her having enough milk production so when they get complainy like that I worry. I don't know that Fury's getting a lot of fluids, but her water bowl does go down throughout the day, even if I don't see it.

So, I want to go to bed, but what I have is a complainy mom and complainy babies. I worry they are having stomach problems (Fury isn't nearly as licky as she was at first) so I stimulate some genital areas to get stuff going and Fury follows suit. I don't know if that fixed it. I check baby bellies to see if they are full enough. Yeah . . .

So I sit with Fury, who stops complaining. And her babies stop complaining, and then I go to bed.

I hear Fury tickled her feet on the wood paneling down the hall to check to see if I am available and then she goes back to the box and whines. I get back up. It is now midnight. Repeat.

This happens again at 3 am, only this time I've left my door open for her to come in, and she does - shooting under the bed (where she normally sleeps - she's a denning dog) and she starts scratching at the carpet. It's remarkably like her labor.

I kick her back out, get everyone nestled in, and go to bed. Never mind the classes, Kristin needs her sleep.

6 am, it happens again. The puppies still all look fine, but Fury is really not happy. I open the front door and she goes under the deck and sits there, then runs in and goes under the bed. At this point, I think she just wants a break. Poor thing. I check her nipples, all is in order. She looks fit. Back to bed.

So this morning I get up and she is happy to see me, leave the puppies, comes and sits on the bed for a moment, checks me out in the bathroom while I'm brushing my teeth and then goes back to the box but just stands there.

As I am writing this, she just came in again and scooted under the bed. Maybe she's ready for a daily walk now. The puppies are doing well and sleeping happily without her on the heating pad, so I guess she just needs a break. And is ready for some Kristin loving. Or maybe she just misses Yishai. :)

Day 5 - Fury is so thin!

I thought I would just say this, because I can't wait to post it tomorrow.

You absolutely need to see before and after photos of mama-dog. When she got home from Wisconsin, she just . . . wasn't right. Pretty low energy, lots of grunting. I kept mountain biking and hiking with her until she made it pretty clear that she wasn't having it. I would take her on a trail run and she would dawdle forever unless we were heading back, in which case she'd hightail it home. In the week before puppies popped out, I could actually outrun her. It was crazy. I wanted to keep her fit, though, so I pushed her within reason.

On her due date:

And a photo from today:

I mean, even her expression is different. There is this photo from six weeks in and she looks sway-backed. I kept wondering if her back has always been that low or if I had just not noticed it before. No, Fury was just letting it all hang out.

She's getting pretty good about leaving the puppies now, she'll let herself out to go to the bathroom and sort of wants to go on walks - we make it up to about the end of the cul de sac before she starts hopping in my arms and trying to push me home again, but at least she gets out for a few minutes. She's calming down about me handling them.

I am NOT loving that she appears to not want to feed herself, so I am hand feeding her food all day long, and she's getting goats milk with agave and liver supplements, too. Hopefully she will eventually eat, but for now, what the princess wants, the princess gets, I guess.

Day 5 - Thinking about health and homes

Well, today my litter co-conspirator is leaving to put on a New Year's event in Joshua Tree, CA (and no, there is not just one Joshua Tree left, there's plenty - big, healthy ones grow in town). Without Yishai, these pups probably wouldn't be around. I knew I wanted to do it, but the actual drive down to Los Angeles, pack the dog on the plane, send her off to strangers, and wait thing . . . it was really tough on me. I keep pretending that I am a tough dog owner, but fact is, I wuv my dog. Yishai encouraged me throughout and drove down both to send her off and pick her up. It's wonderful to have someone who supports my endeavors like that.

Now that he's gone, I have two things to ponder - what to do about my puppies' future health and how to get them into the hands of stockmen.

Health

What to do, you ask? Keep them healthy, duh. Feed them nice food, love them, call it good, right? Yeah . . . no. What I'm talking about is vaccines. There is a dirty hippie side to my dog ownership that has to do with medicines. I lost my last dog after medicating the crap out of him and just decided that I would adopt the same philosophy I have with myself for Fury - which is . . . homeopathic unless traditional medicine is unavoidable. Fury is only vaccinated when I need a health certificate for flying. Instead, I use veterinary nosodes. They detox Rabies and other vaccinations while maintaining immunity. It's worked well for Fury, who's never even had kennel cough (and my last dog got that ALL THE TIME).

So I am tempted to administer nosodes instead of vaccines to the puppies. But, at the same time, I have to think about the future owners' wishes. Not everyone is as hippie-esque as me and this is one thing that could definitely affect puppy owners.

I am probably going to go the traditional route. Comments welcome.

Homes

So I have all kinds of people asking after my puppies these days, but not the specific homes I want. Three are spoken for, three are available. Nobody's been assigned a pup yet. Only one is going to a regular working home so far (and I am not counting myself/Yishai - we're hobbyists). I bred these puppies specifically for ranch work (not even trialling) and I have not exposed myself to these people yet. I did talk to the cattleman that works the field next to my climbing gym and he gave me some pointers. I submitted an ad to WorkingAussieSource.com and I guess I will be putting up flyers at feedstores and the sales barns around here. John also gave me a cattleman magazine to advertise in, but i think by then it will be too late.

I don't want to hold good homes an arms' length away - but I do want these puppies to have the best exposure to their purpose for living as possible. Even if I have to be really hands-on with a rancher who doesn't know dogs, that's fine. I have one of the best, if not the best, stockdog trainer in the country a thirty-minute drive from me.

Day 4 - Socialization/Stimulation

So now it's time to work on littlepuppy personalities. This is another aspect of my waiting for many years in the breed before raising a litter that I think is going to help me.

You see, this litter isn't a litter of sweet pet Aussies. They may very well turn out that way, but these were bred primarily to be working ranch dogs. As such, they are most likely going to have reserved, protective temperaments. I'm not kidding myself about what kind of homes these pups need to go to. Having the Fury was a major education for me. I worked hard to help educate others, too. I've even written articles for my website and the Aussie Times (ASCA's newsletter) regarding this working Aussie temperament.

Fury was a bit of a surprise and, at some times, a major heartbreak. I didn't know how to deal with her tendency to control people who were in her space by heeling them. I came from a super friendly dog who could tolerate anything. No longer did I have a dog I could take downtown and tie out while I went shopping. I actually had to tell polite kids that yes, my dog does bite.

Don't mistake this for aggression. Fury is not an aggressive dog. I always just tell people they need to consider her more of a person - would you walk up to a strange person and rub all over them? What would they do in response? That is the same response for Fury. In fact, I feel very much that her non-stranger-friendly personality is indicative of her higher-than-usual intelligence as well as her bond with her people - at trials she is not concerned with other dogs or people because of her reserve, and would rather not be bothered.

As I show above, there is a double-edged sword with a personality like that. If I didn't have strong breed mentors, things could have ended VERY differently for us. I do not intend to put my puppy buyers in that situation.

So how do we do that? We select homes that understand their potential personality (and are appropriate and even appreciative of it), and we socialize the heck out of them.

So, after tail docking yesterday, I let the puppies chill for a while. But just before bed, my roommate, Casper, and I set to puppy stimulation exercises. These exercises were developed by Dr. Carmen Battaglia, and they are scientifically proven to provide puppies with enough stresses at an early age that they develop a lot more hardy than puppies not exposed to this. I feel this is very important as the personality that Fury and Ben can create has to do with intolerance of pressure in the form of people or dogs in the dog's personal space. Learning how to suck up uncomfortable situations should help them deal with it better than not. But again, it's all theory, right?

Puppy Stimulation in Practice

So, step number 1 is to hold the puppy and tickle their toes with a q-tip. Casper here is holding her upright, also, which is step number two, but honestly, some of these little guys wriggle A LOT. It's interesting to really see their personalities start to come out when I interact with them. Who handles what is quite an eye opener.

Step 2 - Hold the puppy perpendicular to the floor but upright for 3-5 seconds.

Step 3 - Hold the puppy perpendicular, but with her/his head down for 3-5 seconds.

Step 4 - Hold the puppy in supine position for 3-5 seconds (on their back).

Step 5 - Put them on a damp and cool towel for 3-5 seconds.

Optimus Prime and Dactyl are by far the most mellow about this so far. Reid, holy moly, Reid, CHILL OUT.

Thoughts on This

Even if the stimulation exercises don't do much - they're going to help us in two ways.

1. Fury can barely tolerate my holding/manipulation of the puppies. When I picked up the first puppy to do this, her screaming made Fury start shaking and wanting to get up and check on her. By the end, Fury was used to the screaming and realized that both Casper and I weren't going to do anything to her puplets. I think it's important that Fury understands that while they are her charges, I get to do what I want to them, too.

2. Some of the puppies are not very tolerant of handling or manipulation right now. Better get them used to it sooner, rather than later. I'm not sure when I'll start inviting people by the house to check out the puppies, but my job starts now and the Howard Street family consisting of me, Laura, and Casper (and by default, our honorary fourth roommate, Yishai) can work on it as Fury is comfortable with us.

I also think it's important to have positive puppy relations, so I am also interspersing a lot of sweet, loving puppy touches throughout the day. Just don't wnat to get over involved. I trust Fury to do her end and I don't want to stress my happy, thriving little muttlets.

Day 3 - The Deed Is Done

This morning I woke up and checked on Fury and she was shivering. That wasn't exciting. I gave her some goat milk after reading that it could be caused by calcium definciency and then put a blanket on her. The house isn't warm but it's warm enough - 70 or so? She's fine now, panting even.

So, I decided to go through with it. Got all my supplies, sterilized my tools by kahering them (I found this kind of funny, and if you don

't know what that is, don't worry about it - I boiled them). I didn't really want to use chemicals like bleach and I didn't want to fire-sterilize. I'd never used the emasculator so it probably didn't need it, but you know what, whatever. I want my puppies happy. I set all the tools out on a tray and printed out directions.

Just before I started, I called to make sure I wasn't going to use hemostats. Every other method I know with cutting involves them. "Why would you do that? The docker does that for you." Oh, okay. Conversation kind of repeated some online ones we'd been saying and I remarked that I was really glad that I'd waited so long to breed, that I totally got the dog I ordered from her seven years ago, and I was glad I was doing this myself.

So far so good. Kathy Warren told me she didn't do front dewclaws as she's seen her dogs use them. Fury and every other dog I've had them done. I was happy to have an excuse not to cut them - and as it turns out only one puppy had a rear dewclaw (Reid), and just one of those vestigal ones - so no guilt there.

My gal roommate and her father came home right when we were going to do it. What a way to meet her dad. He was looking over our shoulder periodically and at the pile of puppy tails on the coffee table and going, "Rabbit's feet!" I like a man who can handle stuff like this.

Also, I would just like to say that once again, Animal Science degree (or almost, I changed to an English degree three courses shy of finishing it) came in handy. I have totally used emasculators to dock sheep and neuter them, so I knew how it would go and even how it would feel thanks to the labs we had. I thought it was pointless at the time, but glad I did it now, eh? Also, glad that my first job involved me having to kill rodents periodically (I worked for a pet store breeding them) so I can deal with all this. And grateful for Cathy Davis, my first Aussie mentor, for always involving me in this process.

You see, it's not the puppy pain that kills me. They really, really don't seem to mind it. In fact, my puppies were madder and madder when I was done docking their tails and flipped them over into a supine position to cut their little nails so Fury wouldn't get scratched while they nursed. They just didn't like being upside down. Having their tail hacked off was nothing.

It's just that these were perfectly wonderful little puppies. In Dusty's litter (my middle dog), the puppies had wonky tails and I had no remorse for taking them off. I told Yishai this in hopes that it would be the same, but the dogs they come from . . . solid, happy tails (and well-set, too).

So, around noon, Yishai shows up for the pre-arrangement, which is that he - who is strongly opposed to my docking - will walk the Fury for me while I dock. Fury's reaction yesterday to crating showed me that no way could I rationally do this with her anywhere around to hear their distress. She was, however, quite happy to get out of dodge for a bit. She's been a lot more mobile this morning. Before he leaves, he says, "Wait, I have to say goodbye to their tails!" And he goes through each puppy, caressing it and saying goodbye. See, this stuff kills me. Yishai is largely a moral ballast for me. If he has a problem with something, I really have to check myself about whether I have acted or are about to act in the best way possible. Fundamentally, I understand his opposition, but again, this is the breed. Today is my job to enforce the standard - I picked two dogs that I think will create dogs that will best exemplify the dog described in ASCA's breed standard, but there are two things that people have to interfere on that are in its wording: "An identifying characteristic is his natural or docked bobtail" and "Rear dewclaws are removed." And you know, given that I spent something like seven years close-reading the breed standard on the Breed Standard Review Committee for ASCA, I know why it says that.

So I did. Yishai leashed Fury up, and I looked at my stellar roommate, Casper (that's a nickname, his real name is Paul) and said, "Let's do this." Casper said yesterday, "Damn, stop whining about docking, they're stockdogs!" Right, I said, so will you help me? Yup, he would. So first I put them all in a pile on the heating pad that sits in the middle of the whelping box and let them get comfortable.

We both got down on the floor and I grabbed Moto, because he is the largest and most vigorous of the bunch so I figured if I really messed up, I'd have a lot more time to deal with him than anyone else. Casper and I figured out how to hold him for best access, I awkwardly put the emasculator over the tail, checked the position and said . . . "Here goes."

Crunch. And I went to twist the tail off as per Terry's instruction, but it was a clean cut - didn't hold the wound together, so holding it for a minute, also not an option. A bead of blood formed, and I wondered about hemostating him, but wondered what exactly I would hemostat together, so just added a bunch of QuickStop (blood coagulant) and we flipped him over.

It was THEN that he started screaming. I trimmed all the little hooks off his nails and checked for dewclaws, put him back, and he was happily asleep with his siblings.

I won't lie that I wasn't shaking a little, but doing okay. I may have cut their tails a little long for most people's taste but (a) I have had Aussies with SHORT tails and prefer them longer and (b) DUDE! It's scary cutting tails off! I didn't want to do spinal damage.

Anyway, we basically repeated this process over and over as quick as possible. Reid and Fie were insatiable when you flipped them over, would NOT settle down. I'm going to have to work harder on them to get them to submit to supine, but I like that they're feisty. :)

As soon as I was done, they were happily asleep on their sleeping pad - no worse for wear. It might hurt like the dickens, but, if so, three-day-old puppies are stoic.

When we were done, I called Yishai and told him he could come back. As soon as he did, Fury ran in, counted her puppies and settled into wash them, but not so vigorously that the coagulated tails opened up. She continues to impress me with her mothering. Yishai, however, was sad. "I deceived her. She hates me. I took her out so we could hurt her puppies," sometimes, he is so sweet and yet so pathetic . . . Fury was fine with him. And she seems to be fine so long as her puppies are there, missing parts or no.

I always joked about keeping the tails and making earrings out of them. Uhhh, yeah. That's pretty morbid in hindsight. Off to the garbage with them.

And that concludes (hopefully) the worst part of breeding Aussies.

Day 3 - Yuck

So here's the part I am really dreading about puppy raising. Today is day three - the pups are strong enough to take it, so I must now uphold my responsibility to the American Australian shepherd and dock some tails. Also dewclaws.

I don't believe I will be posting photos of this process for obvious reasons. Here is how I think it's going to go:

Me: hands puppy to roommate Here we go.

Casper: Got her.

Me: Okay, here we go.

Casper: . . .

Me: Okay, here we go.

Casper: . . .

Me: Right, on with it. Picks up hemostat. Takes big sigh. Clamps it on.

Panic sets in for both of us, but we keep it controlled.

Me: Picks up the emasculator (which I really do need to take a photo of you). I am so sorry, little guy. So sorry. So sorry. Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh . . .

Emasculator: CRUNCH!

Repeat.

Right.

So, having an Australian shepherd automatically signs you on to the historical utility of docking tails. I have always defended this practice. If you are a real working stockdog in California, you need it done. Same reason they dock sheep tails. It just become a mess. They didn't evolve naturally for the environment, so cut cut cut.

Right. That's all well and good when it's not your puppies. Not the puppies you are absolutely in love with. When you've grown a fondness for the future tails. When you have puppy buyers asking for you to leave them on . . .

But, in the end, peer pressure is making me do this. Making me hack off perfect, beautiful little Aussie tails. Why do I do this again? Oh, right, because this is what you do. It's the breed, it's an identifying characteristic.

I don't care if it doesn't hurt that much. I know that. I've done other people's dogs. Just not my precious puppies. My perfect little guys.

Yishai is strongly opposed to me doing it. So, because I already found that I can't take Fury's pure panic when I separate her from the pups, I'm enlisting him to take Fury for a walk while I do it. She's going to hate that walk, but I will hate her screaming more. It will make my work hurried and shoddy.

I know I can do this. I'm tough. Wish me luck. We'll check back later.

Day 2 - Photos and Names

Well, I got through the night just fine. Fury is very careful about being kind to little things so I had a feeling puppy navigation would be no problem and I was right. Everyone slept through the night very happily. Fury was in there sleeping with puppies in the morning.

She has never been so eager to pee right away. "Potty?" She gets up and jogs to the door. I let her out - she pops a squat and streaks back in the house, where she actually counts all the puppies before settling down. When I got my car keys to go out, she was willing to forsake her babies, but I didn't let her (for obvious reasons) and I know she'd regret it as soon as she got out the door.

Thank God for Nancy who supplied me with goat milk. I was a little worried Fury's milk production wouldn't be high enough given she hadn't eaten in two days and had six puppies. Dog food + milk mixed with agave syrup seems to have her right as rain. Nobody seems hungry.

So, at the behest of many who want dry puppy photos, I sent Fury into her crate in my room and started at it. Oh. My. God. "I WANT MY PUPPIES! NOOOOO!" She started tearing up her crate trying to get out in panic. I took photos as fast as I could and freed her - she streaked back to her puppies, counting, and wondering whether she should trust me or not with her pups. Eventually she settled down.

I cannot wait for tomorrow - when I will hack off their beautiful little tails. I can only imagine her shrieking. I am going to send her on a walk with Yishai while I do it.

sSo, on to the business of individual puppy photos with name debut. First, it should be noted that I think litter themes may be fun, but I am above that. I really am. So, on the drive home from picking up Fury from Wisconsin, Yishai suggested names that went well with the kennel name (but remember, when you read them, spell them outloud). So that's what we decided to go with, for better or worse. Except one. But hey, they're litter names. They aren't permanent.

So, in order of birth we have:

Optimus Prime - Red Bi Female

Wait, what? You named a female dog Optimus Prime? And isn't the theme to go with Tara? Yeah . . . well, upon birth, her name was "Yarmulke" for the losenge (color island) on the head. Yarmulke (pronounced 'yawm-ulka') is pretty cute, I think, but Yishai was taken with Optimus Prime for some reason. She was the first puppy born, so I guess that works. But really, I like the sheer weirdness of this one. And of my two favorite puppies so far, she's tops, so have a stupid name. See if I care.

Tara Reid - Red bi (possibly tri?) male

Reid is a dude's name, even if he's named for a really dumb actress. Once again, I really had no control over this one. He's a little lighter red than his sister Optimus, but still nice, dontcha think? Reid was the last puppy born.

Tara Moto - Red merle male

Moto is actually pretty well named. He is first of all, flipping HUGE. He is the earthquake of all puppies in the litter, and he also likes to move around and get lost in the box. Under Fury's arm, spooned against her back, wherever. He seems pretty content with that plan. He also has the most awesome brown tail - but I guess that doesn't matter as of tomorrow.

Tara Firma - Red merle (and copper?) female

Firma's a little earthier color than her powder merle siblings. She seems to have a really nice personality. Sticks out a bit for some reason.

Tara Fie - Red Merle female

Fie is her name because, well . . . that's what she got. I think she looks the most like Fury.

Tara Dactyl - Red merle female

So, the rationale on this one is that she has a lot of white on her head so she looks like a bald eagle, and birds are supposedly descended from dinosaurs. You see how that works? Daca's probably my favorite merle at this point. She, too, is marked a lot like Fury, but has even more white.

So there you go, the Ben + Fury litter names.

Day 1 - Labor

So these puppies were due for Christmas, but try as we might, she basically just panted and shivered and acted uncomfortable all day with no results. I have been
around enough pregnant dogs to know the signs, so I was a little worried that she'd been off her food for a while and shivering but not doing anything yet. As the 26th came, it seemed to be the same thing. We tried to get her to stay in the whelping box, but all she wanted to do was go sit in her plant-den in the backyard and dig there. Eventually Yishai and I (he was over to help with the litter -- he loves my dog as much as I do, and he's getting a puppy) gave up and let her cuddle in the blankets on the couch with us. Poor Yishai was sick, and has been sick for about three weeks. They were quite a team.

We have a webcam, though (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tara-aussies---ben-fury-litter-2010), and all the webcam viewers we anxious for the show to start. We took her on a walk and I noticed some yellowish-clear discharge (she'd already had some clear discharge earlier) and got a little worried. Called her breeder, Tracey McPherson, who told me to relax. Then called Carol Mac, a vet friend of mine, who also told me to relax. Once I got off the phone with her, I decided she should go into the whelping box and when she got out of the covers, I noticed the blanket was wet - her water had broken!

From there, it went pretty darn fast. Fury started shaking super bad and all she wanted to do was go into the backyard den. I had to hold her in there while trying to get the webcam going right again. Happily, Yishai, who is much more nurturing than I am, took over the job of keeping Fury chill while I set up the cam. I kept thinking I had majorly messed up priorities when I wasn't paying attention to my own dog, but my thoughts were this (1) Yishai is very tender to my dog, more than I am, and (2) having that web cam up during labor could really be helpful with all the experienced people watching.

So, after some drama, I got it up just as the first puppy was crowning. Happily, I have done this before, so while Fury was still trying to figure out what was up, I tore the sac and let the puppy get some air. I was trying to hemostat the umbilical cord to tear it while she was licking her new charge, but the next one came fast and furious, and by then her instincts were kicking in and she started eating placentas and cutting cords.

The first three came fast - a red bi bitch, "she has a yarmulke on!" and then two red merle bitches. And then we had a lull. Fury was significantly smaller already. Contractions came and . . . she puked up a huge green mess (placentas are green). And then yet another red merle bitch. I had been worried as everyone wanted a red merle bitch and now I think all the folks who 'pre-ordered' would be satisfied.

Another lull. Fury, being the world's tidiest dog, set herself to really cleaning herself up. I felt her side and distinctly felt another puppy. Five, that's what I figured. Just need to wait. She was tired. She'd push, push, push, but maaaaaaaaaaan. And then, BLECH - more green placenta came up and . . . the puppy came out. He was a breech (HE! our first boy, and a red merle) so I helped get him out and breathing a bit, but before soon he was right as rain and BIG.

Okay, I thought. We're done. Wait, was that another contraction? I felt her stomach. It's amazing that when she's not just chock full of puppies how easy it is to feel them. Yup - another one in there. Push, push, BLAAAAAAAAT. More puke, and out came our final puppy - a red bi male.

Everyone was wet and nasty. Fury, who is known as being the lickingest dog in the west, took care of that in short order. She was covered in blood, fluid, and green, but some hours of lick, lick, licking, and some changing of bedding and she was right as rain.

And you could tell, too, that Fury found herself a higher purpose. I had been feeling really bad about subjecting Fury to two plane rides to and from Wisconsin to stay with strangers (something she hates) and then she had a pretty tough pregnancy. Was I a bad person? No. Now that was clearly obvious. No more Fury crawling into bed in the morning for a while -- and I am going to miss that, but damn if she doesn't look happy.

It was a pretty easy whelp. I wasn't surprised, though. Fury is in great shape and she is real ranch stock. Just as the sire's owner (Anne Jesperson) said what I mentioned this to here: "Well, I'm not surprised. These dogs come from vigorous ranch stock." That's just the way I like it.

Introduction

I thought I would start a blog so I didn't have to spend all day creating yet another website for the puppies. So if you're here, hello.

Our litter's website: http://www.maculated.com/Tara/litters.html

Who am I?

You might know me from my work with the Australian Shepherd Club of America, I've been serving on committees and just got off the board of directors after a three year term. I've competed in pretty much every venue (not rally), and I've been around since I was twelve years old, when I got my very first Aussie after reading up on them and then literally writing a 20-page paper for my parents convincing them why I should get a dog.

I spent my high school years thinking about the next dog I would get (I'm a one-dog kinda gal) and she had to be red merle. I wanted a working line dog. I really wanted what I considered to be a true Aussie.

And then I ended up with Fury.

And I can write about her forever, but I already did, here: http://www.maculated.com/Tara/fury.html

The story of this litter

Over time, I've decided that the Fury has a part in the future of the Australian Shepherd. She's of the kind of stock that Jay Sisler started with: high-drive, high-talent, biddable dogs that I really don't see a lot of and know that there are people out there who, given the right set of management skills, could use.

Who: Because of that, I started to ask around about possible dogs who might reinforce that and also not be a huge outcross to what I have while I establish a line of dogs. Again and again, I came back to Anne Jesperson's Ben, whom I had seen grow from a puppy via the AussieBoard. I've always liked his pedigree, as it's similar to my dog's - a mix of established lines and real-life working ranch dogs (and a linebreeding on Slash V Chickaspike who has proven to be a very influential sire), and I love his looks. He's got a bit more bone and a nice structure that I think should compliment my own dog's.

Here's a link to Ben's "about me" website: Birch Hollow's Habenero

I love that Ben works independently without a lot of direction and can really read his stock. He was recommended by third parties for precisely this reason.

Desired Outcome: This litter is designed to produce the same kind of high-drive, hot-to-work dog that the Fury and Ben are. **They are NOT ideal for homes that won't put them to work, nor are they a good choice for someone's first working Aussie.** But they should be the kind of dog that allows you to do what you want: whether it's trial/exhibition or real-life working situations (these homes are preferred). They are, in essence, what I believe the quintessential Aussie should be, and that isn't for everyone. Also, please note: the puppies will *not be elligible for AKC registration.* They are ASCA only.

	Pedigree of: [Potential Offspring]	WTCh Birch Hollows Habenero HRDIIs Red C/W F=6.74% 3/28/2006	Birch Hollows Dash O Whiskey OTDc STDs DNA-VP Red C/W AS-17078G24M-PI F=4.54% E109896 DL83922201 5/26/2000	WTCH Hangin Tree Dude PATDcs RD RTDcs DNA-CP E61004 DL81203401
				Holmbergs Prairie Wildfire RTDcds RTDs OTDsdc HRD-IIs HTD-Is DNA-VP E94214 DL80877301
			Andrews Tyche Red C/W F=17.98% E148394 6/24/2005	Slash V Andrews Redchickaspike OTDc E76166
				Dairyanns Lazy H Slash
		C-Me Fury And the Mire of Tara STDc RS-E, JS-E, GS-O, DNA-VP Red Merle W AS-21383G32F-PI F=8.35% E126072 1/29/2003	Slash V Skipa Star STDs DNA-CP Black W RF AS-16485G24M-NOPI F=8.19% E112696 12/26/1999	WTCHDiamond S Sam PATDs E78525
				Slash V Key To Success STDsc RD E58681
			WTCH C-Me Amandas Purdy Red Murial RTDcs DNA-CP Red Merle W AS-15432G45F-NOPI F=3.80% E85677 11/6/1996	Slash V Andrews Redchickaspike OTDc E76166
				Andrews Little Blue Tazmanian E78505